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Purpose: Nonword repetition (NWR) has been described as a clinical marker of developmental language disorder (DLD), as NWR tasks consistently discriminate between DLD and typical development (TD) cross-linguistically, with Cantonese as the only reported exception. This study reexamines whether NWR is able to generate TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children by reporting on a novel set of NWR stimuli that take into account factors known to affect NWR performance and group differentiation, including lexicality, sublexicality, length, and syllable complexity. Method: Sixteen Cantonese-speaking children with DLD and 16 age-matched children with TD repeated two sets of high-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are morphemic in Cantonese but meaningless when combined, and one set of low-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are nonmorphemic. Low-lexicality nonwords were further classified on sublexicality in terms of consonant–vowel (CV) combination attestedness (whether or not CV combinations in nonword syllables occur in real Cantonese words). Results: Children with DLD scored significantly below their peers with TD. Effect sizes showed that high-lexicality nonwords and nonword syllables with attested CV combinations offered the greatest TD/DLD group differentiation. Nonword length and syllable complexity did not affect TD/DLD group differentiation. Conclusions: NWR can capture TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese speaking children. Lexicality and sublexicality effects must be considered in designing NWR stimuli for TD/DLD group differentiation. Future studies should replicate the present study on a larger sample size and a younger population as well as examine the diagnostic accuracy of this NWR test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Although children’s prosodic sensitivity links with their reading com- prehension, the factors affecting this link remain unclear. By simultaneously measuring first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English pro- sodic sensitivity and reading comprehension, this study examined the mediating role of syntactic awareness on prosody–reading comprehension among Hong Kong Chinese–English bilingual children. Method: A group of 227 Hong Kong Chinese–English bilingual fourth graders completed L1 and L2 prosodic sensitivity (Cantonese lexical tone awareness and English prosodic sensitivity), syntactic awareness, and reading comprehen- sion and control measures of cognitive (nonverbal IQ, short-term memory, and working memory), metalinguistic (phonological awareness and morphological awareness), linguistic (vocabulary knowledge), and word reading skills. Results: The within-language analyses showed a partial mediation effect of Chinese syntactic awareness on the relation between Cantonese lexical tone awareness and Chinese reading comprehension, but a full mediation effect of English syntactic awareness on the relation between English prosodic sensitivity and English reading comprehension. The cross-language analyses revealed a significant direct effect of Cantonese lexical tone awareness on English reading comprehension and a significant indirect effect of English prosodic sensitivity on Chinese reading comprehension via Chinese syntactic awareness. Conclusion: These findings suggest that, despite the language-independent mediating role of syntactic awareness in bridging prosody and reading compre- hension, the degree of this mediation is shaped by language-specific prosody and its relations with other linguistic structures, including semantics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the relationship between nonverbal cognitive functions and language processing of people with aphasia (PWA) by taking a data-driven approach, as well as multiple cognitive components and multilevel linguistic perspectives. It is hypothesized that language performance is differentially associated with cognitive processing of PWA, with executive functions (EFs) playing a stronger role in language tasks with increasing linguistic complexity. Method: A language battery assessing word comprehension/production, sentence comprehension, and discourse production, together with a series of nonlinguistic cognitive tasks targeting simple/complex attention, short-term/working memory, or EFs, was administered to 53 Cantonese-speaking PWA. Cognitive factors extracted from principal component analysis applied to the cognitive battery served as predictors in four multiple regression analyses to predict PWA’s performance at various linguistic levels. Results: Two cognitive factors, representing (a) simple attention and memory and (b) EF, were extracted. The former predicted performance in word processing tasks, whereas EF significantly predicted performance in all language tasks with increasing contribution as a function of linguistic complexity. Conclusion: The results based on Chinese PWA provide comprehensive evidence for the view that language performance is the end product of interaction between linguistic and nonlinguistic functions and have clear implications for clinical management of PWA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]